Custom Stories from Choiseul, various authors, 1995
- Solomon Islands, #6
- Skimmed on Google Books
- Read September 2016
- Rating: 2/5
- Recommended for: incurable elaborators
Custom Stories from Choiseul
Australia and Oceania
Suremada: Another bewildering reading experience from the Solomon Islands
Suremada: Faces from a Solomon Island Village, Rexford Orotaloa, 1989
- Solomon Islands, #5
- $20, alibris.com
- Read August 2016
- Rating: 1.5/5
- Opening line: Anaibolafafawa was the village Big Man.
- Recommended for: Rambling internet commenters
The Alternative: Actually, let’s just stick with option A.
The Alternative, John Selwyn Saunana
- Solomon Islands, #4
- Borrowed from San Francisco State University, via SF public library
- Read September 2016
- Rating: 1.5/5
- Recommended for: petulant opportunists
The poetry of Jully Makini
Civilized Girl, Jully Makini, 1981
- Solomon Islands, #3
- Read September 2016
- Various internet sources (see below)
- Opening Line: Cheap perfume/ Six inch heels/ Skin-tight pants/ Civilized girl
Vanuatu: Substance without style
Black Stone, Grace Mera Molisa, 1983
The Story of the Eel, Elder Mark of Emil Potun, 2004
- Vanuatu, #2 & #3
- Black Stone: skimmed on Google Books; Story of the Eel: read online through JSTOR
- Read August, 2016
- Opening line (Black Stone): Ageless Vatu/ primeval source/ of creative forces/ ad infinitum
- Opening line (Story of the Eel): There was once an old man and an old woman.
Nights of Storytelling: Always pay attention to the subheading
Nights of Storytelling: A Cultural History of Kanaky-New Caledonia, Raylene Ramsay, ed., 2011
- New Caledonia, #4
- Borrowed from SF library
- Read: May 2016
- Rating: 3/5
- Recommended for: students
Les Contes de Poindi: Tool-making crows and living dead eels
Les Contes de Poindi, Jean Mariotti, 1941
- New Caledonia, #1
- Paperback, $4.67 from Amazon
- Read July 2016
- Rating: 4/5
- Recommended for: wise children
Excerpt from “Words of the Lagoon: Fishing and Marine Lore in the Palau District of Micronesia”
Palauans say a person who is hard to wake up bad el wel–“sleeps like a turtle.”
-R.E. Johannes, Words of the Lagoon
Diaspora and the Difficult Art of Dying: my memory fails me once again
Diaspora and the Difficult Art of Dying, Sudesh Mishra, 2002
- Fiji, #7
- Borrowed from SF library
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Read: February 2016
- Recommended for: storm-tossed master mariners
Kava in the Blood: Who knew a coup could be so boring?
Kava in the Blood, Peter Thomson, 1999
- Fiji, #5
- Paperback, $12 from Amazon.com
- Rating: 2.5/5
- Read: February 2016
- Recommended for: People with better attention spans than mine
Around the World in 2000 Books 